OBESITY A DISEASE, SAYS LARGEST DOCTOR GROUP

The nation’s largest physician organization says obesity is a disease, a statement that local health experts say could help persuade patients to seek treatment and insurance companies to cover a range of weight-loss therapies.

Members of the American Medical Association voted to recognize obesity as a disease at the organization’s annual meeting Tuesday in Chicago.

Dr. James Hay, an Encinitas family practice physician and former president of the California Medical Association, said he was there for the vote and for the debate among doctors about whether obesity truly fits the definition of disease.

“I believe it is a disease,” said Hay, who voted yes. “I’m a family physician, and I see the problems every day.”

The vote reversed a recommendation from the AMA’s Council on Science and Public Health, which recommended against the disease designation because the measure most often used to define obesity, body mass index, does not perfectly predict who is overweight and who isn’t, according to a The New York Times report.

Dr. Patrice Harris, a member of the AMA’s board of trustees, said that those who supported the decision wanted to drive home the point that obesity is a broad public health problem.

“We do want to start a conversation, and we hope that Medicare and Medicaid and some of the private payers will look at their policies for payment,” Harris said.

Dr. Ken Fujioka, a Scripps Health internal medicine specialist and extensively published weight-loss researcher, said the obesity disease question has been endlessly debated by the AMA. He said the organization’s decision to act speaks volumes about the nation’s obesity epidemic, which holds that one in three Americans is overweight.

“I never thought I’d see it in my lifetime,” Fujioka said. “This has been debated for decades. To see it actually happen is just amazing.”

He said the difficulty has always been that society sees weight as a personal weakness or a choice.

While personal choice is part of the equation, the doctor said research shows that genetics play a huge role in determining which patients put on pounds and which don’t.

“There is a small percentage of the population — it’s less than 30 percent — that won’t put on weight no matter what they eat,” Fujioka said. “But that’s not the case for the other two-thirds.”

Research also shows, he said, that once a person becomes obese, it is very difficult to slim down because of the way hormones regulate appetite.

“The vast majority of patients, once they become heavy, they’re now biologically stuck with those fat cells,” Fujioka said.

But some simply aren’t happy with the AMA’s classification of obesity as a disease.

Steve Siebold, a personal trainer and author of the book “Die Fat or Get Tough: 101 Differences in Thinking Between Fat People and Fit People,” said genetics are overplayed by doctors who simply want to get insurance companies to cover weight-loss treatments.

“People trust their doctors, who are saying ‘this is not your fault’ — which is a boldfaced lie. Who is forcing the pizza and doughnuts into people’s mouths? No one is,” Siebold said.